Museum on historic Black beach in jeopardy

Florida

Carol Ozemhoya | OW Contributor |
5/10/2019, 10:59 a.m.

There will be no more Ultra Music Festivals on Virginia Key (South Florida) and no more of the $2 million licensing fee that came with it, half of which was earmarked for an African-American museum on Virginia Key, reports Channel 10 Miami.

“I think it’ll be a travesty of justice if Miami-Dade County does not build an African-American museum on that site,” said Miami Commissioner Keon Hardemon, He had brokered the deal that secured $1 million toward the long-planned African-American museum in historic Virginia Key Beach Park. Pictures from the trust there document its history as Miami-Dade County’s Blacks-only beach during segregation. The county is sitting with $20 million for a cultural museum, but was holding back without operational funding.

“Imagine if someone told you, ‘Well, we’re not going to build the Adrienne Arsht Center because we don’t have the operating funds just yet, but we have the money to build it’,” Hardemon said.